Letrozole vs Clomid

I just wanted to started by saying I'm sorry to infultrate the LTTTC area, there wasn't really an area for me to post this in the other area. I hope it's ok, even though we aren't technically LTTTC :hiding:

We had a FS appointment this morning who told us that instead of Clomid, they use Letrozole, for a number of reasons (risk of multiple births higher with Clomid, and apparently the side effects are less?).

I used Clomid when TTC Jazz, I also have PCOS and needed a fairly high dose to get things happening (from memory it was close to 100mg, maybe 75mg, which my FS insinuated was quite high). I don't know much, actually anything, about Letrozole except it has been used in post-operative breast cancer patients?

Can anyone give us some experiences of Letrozole?
The FS said we do have the choice, but they prefer Letrozole.

Hi Leasha,

I have only ever been on Letrozole for the same reasons. I have been on 2.5mg and always only ever had one dominant egg, the rest were just little cysts. However, I do believe it depends largely on the dose you are on because my cousin just had boy/girl twins with Letrozole or maybe she was just unlucky. I think there is only a very very small chance at twins with 2.5mg.

I had some side effects the first cycle eg headaches, hot flushes and mood swings, but my recent cycles I have only noticed I was more tired. Also the side effects only ever last for the days that I am actually on the drugs, where as Clomid I believe the side effects last until you ovulate.

I haven't been successful yet but DH has issues too.

Good luck to you.

Sorry, just realised my post was very unclear LOL. I thought for sure I wrote this in...

Shel will carrying our next bub, and she has no fertility problems (none detected anyway). Would this be another reason why they are choosing Letrozole over CLomid?

From my experience - clomid is EVIL! I took clomid once - 50mg. It didn't make me ovulate, but sent me into such a bad headspace with anxiety that I had to take about two weeks off work. Evil, horrible, nasty drug!

Letrozole - the side effects only lasted while I took the tablets. I still had a rise in anxiety levels, but it was tolerable. It's something that happens to me any time my estrogen levels get elevated, so it will happen every time before I ovulate no matter what the method is used to make me ovulate.

I know most people don't have the reaction to clomid that I did, but it seems from my reading that letrozole works at lower doses with less side effects and while I've heard of a lot of women failing to ovulate with clomid, I've never heard of someone failing to ovulate with letrozole. Could be because of the much lower women who have tried it though.

The other difference is that whichever hormone needs to be turned off to cause the ovulation to happen - the clomid stops the body from seeing it, while the letrozole stops the body from making it. That's why it works better. Damn shame I can't remember any more of the technical stuff from that and I have no idea where the papers my FS gave me are.

BW

Thanks so much BW! Great that you can give experience from both sides! It's so good to read that :)